A bus load of high school teenagers from International School HCMC went down to Thu Thua Town in Long An Province on Saturday to build three houses for poor families in a Habitat for Humanity project. The 27 student, who had raised the money themselves for the building materials and paid for their two hour bus trip to the Mekong Delta town, split into three groups and worked with the Vietnamese owners to finish the houses. The teams had to level the ground inside the houses, by breaking up big rocks, then mixed and poured the concrete floors by hand.
“The houses had been 50-70% done by Hong Kong International School and we had to do the rest,” said one of the students, Peeraporn Mitrchaiyanant, also known as Candy.
“We carried a lot of sand and bricks, painted the roofs, doors and windows. It made me realize how hard construction work is,” Candy said, adding she really appreciates what Habitat is doing.
“It was a really good experience that we actually helped poor people build a house – something that we just take for granted,” another student, Min Jung Lee, 16, said.
She said they started work at 8am till 4pm but didn’t quite finish everything as they ran out of time. Candy said it changed her whole perspective, and she would try not to complain about her troubles as much. A high school counselor at the school who went on the trip, Doug Willard, said the school was in its second year doing projects with Habitat and the work is very well organized. Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit Christian housing organization building simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need. (thesaigontimes.vn Mar 16)
